1. Lewis and Clark College (Northwestern) (OR)2. Vermont Law School3. Pace University (NY)4. University of Maryland5. Georgetown University (DC)6. University of Oregon7. Tulane University (LA)8. Duke University (NC)9. University of Colorado–Boulder10. Stanford University (CA)11. University of California–Berkeley12. George Washington University (DC) University of Florida (Levin)14. Florida State University New York University University of Denver (Sturm)17. University of Utah (S.J. Quinney)18. University of Texas–Austin19. University of Washington20. Golden Gate University (CA)21. Boston College University of Hawaii (Richardson)

How important do you think it is to go to a law school that's known for environmental law, if that's what you want to practice? Just curious... I may be interested in doing International Environmental Law, although the school I'm gonna go to isn't on that list. But they have some great courses in it...

Logged

Pepperdine it is. I'm a sucker for an ocean view.

flydog

How important do you think it is to go to a law school that's known for environmental law, if that's what you want to practice? Just curious... I may be interested in doing International Environmental Law, although the school I'm gonna go to isn't on that list. But they have some great courses in it...

International environmental would be law schools that have the recycling bins labeled in french and spanish in addition to english

How important do you think it is to go to a law school that's known for environmental law, if that's what you want to practice? Just curious... I may be interested in doing International Environmental Law, although the school I'm gonna go to isn't on that list. But they have some great courses in it...

I am also interested in knowing this... I have a feeling that you should not sacrifice too much in rankings for a specialty program, depending on what you want to do. If you want public interest, then you may be able to sacrifice more ranking for specialty, but if you want biglaw then you should not sacrifice much at all. I got into one school that had a pretty high environmental program, but have a hard time seeing shelling out more money for that school out of state, versus an instate school that is higher ranked. I just don't think specialty is that important.

I should also add that I'm not 100% sure I want to practice that kind of law.

I called around to a couple of national environmental organizations(NRDC, Greenpeace and Sierra Club) and asked them. The consensus seemed to be go to the best law school you can and network in the environmental community like mad. I think the advantage to a school with a strong program is that the networking might be easier. The competition in the field is insane so, being able create personal contacts seems to be key as well as excellent grades. I have a UG in enviro studies so I opted for the higher ranked law school(and the scholarship money), but if my UG was in say history or PoliSci I might have I chosen Pace.

You both make sense... I think the summers will give us a lot of room to wiggle and make some good impressions too - regardless of where we are... Maybe Dean Starr has some good environmentalists I could work with (hehe...)